October is quickly shaping up as a Golden Telecoms Month for China, with a growing number of major events looking set to take place in the month that starts off with the October 1 Golden Week holiday. Major developments that look likely to occur next month include the long-awaited awarding of 4G mobile licenses, and the announcement of another highly-anticipated deal that would see dominant telco China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) finally offer an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone on its network. But perhaps the biggest development for the month could see China’s telecoms regulator announce its first round of highly anticipated licenses for up to 6 new “virtual telcos”, known in the industry as virtual network operators (VNOs). Read Full Post…
Banking services have suddenly become the flavor of the day for China’s Internet firms, with e-commerce leader Alibaba forming a new tie-up with a major bank, as Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) moves closer to its aim of getting a formal banking license. This relatively sudden move by Internet firms into financial services comes as a slight surprise, since I haven’t really seen anything similar in the west. But that said, the financial services sector in most western markets is already well served by mature, market-oriented firms — a sharp contrast to China where the sector is dominated by less efficient state-run companies. Read Full Post…
Thank goodness! That’s my first and main reaction to news that after months of tortured courtship, Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) has finally selected Tencent (HKEx: 700) as the winning suitor of its Sogou search engine, beating out rivals Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Qihoo (NYSE: QIHU). I have to admit the selection of Tencent came as a bit of a surprise, since I had expected Qihoo to win the contest for one of China’s older and less appreciated search engines. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on September 18. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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MIIT to Issue MVNO Licenses In October – Applicant (English article)
iPhone 5s, 5c Reservations Top 100,000 At China Unicom (HKEx: 762) (English article)
A simmering feud between leading wireless carrier China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) and top Internet firm Tencent (HKEx: 700) was back in the headlines last week with new accusations by the former against the latter, drawing attention to the near monopoly status that many state-run firms often enjoy due to strong government protection. Beijing should be applauded for finally taking important steps over the last year to end that monopoly in the telecoms space, which has sapped the sector of innovation. Now it needs to extend that approach to other sectors to create firms that can truly compete on the global stage. Read Full Post…
I’m a big fan of hairy crabs, not so much because I think they taste good but because the delicacy represents a storied Shanghai tradition that can attract headlines not only locally but also from across China and even around the world. Shanghai has far too few of these homegrown major headline-grabbers outside the world of finance, where it has no problem making front page news. Read Full Post…
Media are reporting that Internet giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) is following close behind rival Alibaba with plans to launch an investment product that is quite unrelated to any of its core online businesses. The move by China’s biggest publicly listed Internet firm comes as its market value reaches the psychologically important $100 billion mark, making it more than twice as big as China’s second largest telco, China Unicom (HKEx: 762), and more than 10 times larger than leading PC maker Lenovo (HKEx: 992). Its massive size and financial clout have emboldened the company to move outside its core areas into other businesses, some dominated by major state-run firms. Read Full Post…
I’ve been following the microblogs of some of China’s top tech executives for a while now, and am quickly becoming a fan of Li Dongsheng, the man behind leading TV maker TCL (Shenzhen: 000100). Unlike many other executives, who use their microblogs to hype their latest products, Li has shown a more refreshing tendency to also use his Sina Weibo account for some personal introspection. Read Full Post…
Blackstone, Temasek give thumbs down to Pactera, Youku
Two Chinese tech leaders are feeling the effects of fickle western institutional investors, with word that one big name has lowered its buyout offer for IT outsourcing firm Pactera (Nasdaq: PACT) , while another has dumped its sizable stake in video sharing site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU). In the former case, it’s private equity giant Blackstone that’s lowered its offer for Pactera, while in the latter its Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek dumping its Youku Tudou stake. Both cases are due to company specific factors; but they also show that big-name investors may carry a certain level of prestige for companies that attract them, but they also bring a certain level of risk. Read Full Post…
Media have been buzzing about possible acquisition targets by Wanda Group, a top Chinese real estate firm, after the company’s talkative founder Wang Jianlin disclosed he has a massive warchest for global purchases. Some have speculated the new buying binge could focus on hotels or other service-oriented businesses, following Wanda’s big recent moves into the hospitality business and its landmark purchase last year of AMC Entertainment, the second largest US movie theater operator. But I would bet my money on real estate, as that’s what Wang knows best and it’s an area where Chinese firms in general have shown a strong interest in buying overseas assets. Read Full Post…
A new announcement from leading online travel services firm Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) is showing just how important a strong mobile strategy is to the future of Internet companies in China, where legions of consumers now surf the web over their cellphones. Ctrip’s announcement shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to anyone who follows the sector, since most major Internet firms have specifically designated mobile as a key priority area for future growth. Robin Li, founder of leading search company Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) early this year officially put himself in charge of the company’s mobile division (previous post); and e-commerce leader Alibaba has also embarked on a major acquisition spree this year with mobile technologies as one of its main focuses. Read Full Post…
